We must separate the rightful backlash against President Obama's liberal institutionalism from the wrongful attack upon the soundness of the Reagan Doctrine.
It’s another myth of the last eight years that the Reagan Doctrine (and even the Bush Doctrine for that matter) was the same internationalism as the Obama Doctrine. Conservatives have always been skeptical of the UN and WHO. That’s nothing new. One can believe in a strong military, support naval forward deployment around the world, and encourage engagement with allies without wanting the UN or the Human Rights Watch to run the world.
Hi, I am an 8th grader and a conservative. I am volunteering on the campaign of Ron Desantis and previously voluntereed on Trump's campaign as well. Isolationism or interventionism does not put America first. A conservative foreign policy puts our national interests first. They do not follow idiotic doctrines like Democracy promotion around the world or they do not surrender to tyrants around the world. This means that we should always analyze conflicts on the basis of whether it benefits American interests or not. If it does not benefit American interests, then why should we care? For example, the war in Ukraine, the neocons and the idealists have failed to elaborate on how supporting Ukraine helps America. It makes America worse off because China and Russia are getting close. This will form an anti-American alliance. I want to protect human rights but we cannot do that at the expense of our national security. Also, would you be willing to write a blog together? Thanks,
Hello. One thing I think you should consider about Ukraine is that in the '90s, we encouraged Ukraine to fully dunuclearize itself in exchange for our commitment to protect it against Russian aggression. Therefore, a failure to stand with Ukraine damages American interests abroad in two key ways. First, it demonstrates we are not committed to our commitments and our soft power becomes a paper tiger, as the nations of the world will not take our resolve seriously. Second, it tells the smaller nations of the world that unless they develop nuclear power, their sovereignty will not be respected by larger nations, which will fuel a nuclear race among smaller nations, especially ones adjacent to larger nations, undoing what success we've had in nuclear nonproliferation since the end of the Cold War. Crucially, if more smaller nations begin developing nuclear weapons, it increases the possibility of such weapons falling into the hands of non-state actors, such as terrorist organizations, who have no compunction against using them on civilian populations.
Ok, I agree that we shouldn't have told Ukraine to denuclearize. We should stand with Ukraine. However, we have to audit Ukraine aid to make sure that our money is not going to neo-Nazi battalions like the Azov Battalion and make sure that our actions are not making Russia and China close.
I think Russia and China have already been acting in tandem against US interests for at least a decade, if not more. And, I think Russia winning in Ukraine affords this axis of authoritarianism a victory notch in its belt and signals a go ahead for China to invade Taiwan.
Ok, so why do you think Russia and China are getting close to each other? It is becuase we are antagonizing Russia under the auspices of '''democracy''
We should abandon this cold war mentality against Russia. Russia is really not a threat to the United States. We must damage the China-Russia alliance. The war in Ukraine is just benefiting Xi Jinping, nobody else.
It’s another myth of the last eight years that the Reagan Doctrine (and even the Bush Doctrine for that matter) was the same internationalism as the Obama Doctrine. Conservatives have always been skeptical of the UN and WHO. That’s nothing new. One can believe in a strong military, support naval forward deployment around the world, and encourage engagement with allies without wanting the UN or the Human Rights Watch to run the world.
Hi, I am an 8th grader and a conservative. I am volunteering on the campaign of Ron Desantis and previously voluntereed on Trump's campaign as well. Isolationism or interventionism does not put America first. A conservative foreign policy puts our national interests first. They do not follow idiotic doctrines like Democracy promotion around the world or they do not surrender to tyrants around the world. This means that we should always analyze conflicts on the basis of whether it benefits American interests or not. If it does not benefit American interests, then why should we care? For example, the war in Ukraine, the neocons and the idealists have failed to elaborate on how supporting Ukraine helps America. It makes America worse off because China and Russia are getting close. This will form an anti-American alliance. I want to protect human rights but we cannot do that at the expense of our national security. Also, would you be willing to write a blog together? Thanks,
Raj
Hello. One thing I think you should consider about Ukraine is that in the '90s, we encouraged Ukraine to fully dunuclearize itself in exchange for our commitment to protect it against Russian aggression. Therefore, a failure to stand with Ukraine damages American interests abroad in two key ways. First, it demonstrates we are not committed to our commitments and our soft power becomes a paper tiger, as the nations of the world will not take our resolve seriously. Second, it tells the smaller nations of the world that unless they develop nuclear power, their sovereignty will not be respected by larger nations, which will fuel a nuclear race among smaller nations, especially ones adjacent to larger nations, undoing what success we've had in nuclear nonproliferation since the end of the Cold War. Crucially, if more smaller nations begin developing nuclear weapons, it increases the possibility of such weapons falling into the hands of non-state actors, such as terrorist organizations, who have no compunction against using them on civilian populations.
Ok, I agree that we shouldn't have told Ukraine to denuclearize. We should stand with Ukraine. However, we have to audit Ukraine aid to make sure that our money is not going to neo-Nazi battalions like the Azov Battalion and make sure that our actions are not making Russia and China close.
I think Russia and China have already been acting in tandem against US interests for at least a decade, if not more. And, I think Russia winning in Ukraine affords this axis of authoritarianism a victory notch in its belt and signals a go ahead for China to invade Taiwan.
Ok, so why do you think Russia and China are getting close to each other? It is becuase we are antagonizing Russia under the auspices of '''democracy''
We should abandon this cold war mentality against Russia. Russia is really not a threat to the United States. We must damage the China-Russia alliance. The war in Ukraine is just benefiting Xi Jinping, nobody else.